12.05.2009

A conversation earlier today touched on the topic of September 11, 2001. Did I remember? Oh, yes. Vividly. A strange silence hung over the country, waiting, watching, horrified and mind-blown. Part of that silence was due to the grounded planes, marking just how much they contribute to the sounds of the life we take for granted.

How many parts of the world experience events like 9/11 as a matter of course?

Whether attributable to the attack on US ground or the change of the millennium, one life ended. And, like all endings, another life began.

But, nobody noticed. The world remained, we were all still breathing, so no one noticed just how different “things” really were.

It’s that time of the year when the media starts looking back at the past year. Since we’re a decade into the new millennium, they are looking back at the past 10 years too.

That list, the list of all the events of the last 10 years, is a tragic condemnation of man’s inherent ability to perform increasingly horrific acts against himself, each other, nature and the world.

Instead of fighting for peace, fighting to eliminate instances of that fateful day, 9/11/01, we devolved into vengeful, hateful retribution. War. Not one, but more. It wasn’t you or I that caused that attack, nor were we the target. But, each one of us has paid for that attack over and over again during the last 10 years.

The enveloping negativity, with its certain fatal finale, has clouded the eyes, ears and hearts of humanity. I admire authors like Dan Brown and Burt Wilson for putting pen to paper to shine a beacon through the haze of hate.

Those beacons are there. They exist for us all to find a way to shape and create a world more akin to our potential and birthright.